Natural cocoa butter is a unique fat. It has a melting point at around body temperature. In addition, it has a high solids content at room temperature and a sharp melting curve that leads to a low level of solids at body temperature. These unique melting properties make cocoa butter the most preferred fat for use in chocolate and other related confections, because the chocolate remains solid at room temperature but melts rapidly in the mouth to provide a cool, non-waxy taste with excellent flavor display.
Unfortunately, cocoa butter is relatively expensive, so there have been many attempts to find less costly substitutes for cocoa butter with similar properties. It has been impossible to duplicate the properties of cocoa butter in synthetic triglyceride fats, because cocoa butter contains triglycerides having palmitic acid in the one and three positions and oleic acid in the two position. On a macroscopic scale, excessive rearrangement prevents the synthesis of triglycerides having the palmitic-oleic-palmitic combination.
Another drawback of natural cocoa butter is its polymorphic instability. Tempering is required to reach the desired crystal structure for good mouthmelt. Chocolate bloom is another problem caused by the polymorphic properties of the cocoa butter.
Cocoa butter is also high in calories. One of the most common metabolic problems among people today is obesity, which has been related to coronary artery disease. Therefore, it would be desirable to find a substitute for cocoa butter that is low in calories.
Sucrose polyesters and other polyol polyesters have been used to make noncaloric food compositions. U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,186 to Mattson et al. discloses low calorie, fat-containing, food compositions in which at least a portion of the triglyceride content is replaced with a polyol fatty acid ester, the polyol fatty acid ester having at least four fatty acid ester groups with each fatty acid having from 8 to 22 carbon atoms.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,023 to Babayan et al. discloses confectionary coating compositions said to be resistant to bloom, comprising a hard butter plus fatty acid esters of sucrose. The esters are of fatty acids having 10 to 24 carbon atoms and mixtures thereof. From 1 to 8 fatty acids are present per sucrose molecule, and the amount of sucrose ester is 0.5% to 10% by weight of the hard butter.
Among the attempts at making cocoa butter substitutes is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,647 of Ota et al. Disclosed are cocoa butter substitutes comprising sugar alcohols esterified with fatty acids. The sugar alcohols have 5 to 6 carbon atoms and can include xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol and sorbitan. The sugar alcohols are esterified with 1 to 3 moles, per mole of the sugar alcohol, of a higher saturated fatty acid having 14 to 18 carbon atoms, and at least one mole, per mole of the sugar alcohol, of a lower saturated fatty acid having 2 to 4 carbon atoms.
It is an object of the present invention to produce a cocoa butter substitute having the desirable melting characteristics of natural cocoa butter.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cocoa butter substitute that is less expensive and contains fewer calories than natural cocoa butter.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cococa butter substitute that avoids the polymorphic instability of natural cocoa butter.
These and other objects of the invention will become evident from the disclosure herein.
All percentages are by weight unless otherwise defined.